Barque: Thomas Moore's Work

Projects and books by contemporary American writer of A Religion of One's Own, Gospel: The Book of Matthew, Care of the Soul.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Imagination is key for living in the 21st century

The Magazine of Yoga editor, Susan Maier-Moul interviews Hari Kirin Kaur Khalsa and Thomas Moore in "Conversation: Hari Kirin and Thomas Moore": "Chakras and Soul — The authors of Art & Yoga and Care of the Soul talk about imagination, making spiritual art in the 21st century and translating the original Christian gospels."

Husband and wife talk about imagination, humanity, reality, art, and the Gospel message. Hari Kirin answers a question about sentimentalism and fundamentalism in art.

"Hari Kirin: Any kind of duality – you’ll notice it lacks humor or has a fundamental “I’m right” point of view. It’s sentimental because it only acknowledges part of reality. In yoga and art, always try to include the opposite. Make something, and un-make it. Doing and not doing. Knowing and not knowing. Wisdom and foolishness. effort and effortlessness. Perfect and imperfect. Both sentimentality and fundamentalism are defenses against being ourselves."

Moore responds to a question about the meaning of the Gospel texts without an overlay of earlier translations.

"Thomas: I see a challenging spirituality and a radical suggestion of how humanity could thrive and prosper mainly by dealing with greed and self-interest. The Gospels say that everyone should be a healer and operate from a therapeutic frame of mind. The Greek word therapeia (therapy, of course) comes up again and again. I’ve thought a lot about this notion of sentimentality. I see it as a defense against the challenge of life. If you make something unnaturally sweet, you don’t have to change your life. You can remain numb. Yet we don’t have to be cold and only realistic either. The Gospels inspire and waken the imagination to possibilities. Yes, I’d like to move from sentimentality to inspiration."

This conversation continues in the magazine tomorrow. Part Two, about religion and science is available.

"Artists are genuine creators, giving us bodies and landscapes and objects. They populate our imaginations with figures that live as presences in our lives that affect us and instruct us. The soul is hungry for images and, in fact, lives on them the way we live on food. We can never have enough images...

I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. It represents a shift that I hope will become more evident as our new century progresses: a shift from separating matters of soul and spirit — images and practice, the poetic and the well defined, the intuitive and the carefully reasoned — to uniting them... When soul and spirit come together, there is a great healing. These two dimensions, like yin and yang, are the building blocks, the essential dynamics, in everything that is tangible and alive."

Saturday, March 05, 2011

Moore describes a better future in contribution

100 Words: Two Hundred Visionaries Share Their Hope for the Future is a compilation of insights to make our world better. William Murtha asks contributors, "In 100 words, please share empowering stories and thoughts that best encapsulate your insight, wisdom and feelings on how we can move towards a more just, fulfilling, and peaceful world." He follows with, "What five books, poems or songs have most inspired both your life and your vocation?" Thomas Moore responds in this collection. This book is on Facebook and Google Books. According to Amazon's preview, kindly provided by Barque member, Swingdancer Ken, Moore's entry reads:

"Thomas Moore: We are slowly heading toward a future when war will seem unthinkable, illness will be understood as an affliction of the soul and spirit as well as the body, and education will be based in joy rather than punishment.

Our most important challenge now is to embrace our full sexuality and dedicate ourselves to art, dream, beauty, and sensual delights. As people, we are not made up of brain cells and genes; we are bodies ensouled, created for the entertainment of ideas and sensations.

Five Books that have Most Shaped Moore's Vision:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu SuzukiRe-Visioning Psychology, James HillmanThe Book of Life, Marsilio FicinoMemories, Dreams, Reflections, C. G. JungLetters of Emily Dickinson
Who Is Thomas Moore?
Thomas Moore has been a monk, a musician, a professor of religion, a psychotherapist, and a full-time writer and lecturer. His most well-known book is Care of the Soul. Today he fits no categories of belief or affiliation, religious or professional, but his work breathes with the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Blake, and William Morris.

"A soul mate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communicating and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace."— Thomas Moore

Why Barque: Thomas Moore?

"What I'm trying to do is say lighten up and let life flow through you, and be on the waves as they go up and down. For me, a great image in mythology is
Tristan of Tristan and Isolde. He's out there on a little boat without an oar, without a rudder, on the Irish sea . . . You float your way. You drift. The essence
of my approach is to be extravagantly accepting and forgiving of yourself and others. Ride the waves and let life take you where it has good things for you." - Thomas Moore